Petrochemicals

The petrochemical industry began in the 1920s as suitable by-products became available through improvements in the refining processes. It developed parallel with the oil industry and has rapidly expanded since the 1940s, with the oil-refining industry providing plentiful cheap raw materials for the present and for the future (Speight, 2002, 2011; Hsu and Robinson, 2006; Gary et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2007).